Of sex and science. Elizabeth Pisani's blog about HIV and other sundry things.

01/10/09

The US voted for hope. It (we, I) voted for change. It (we, I) got a president who suggested sensible things like basing health policy on good science. The US even got some senators who followed through with funding for programmes that would teach young people that if you want to have sex and not get pregnant, contraception works pretty well. Radical! The committee considering the funding proposal actually voted it through. A miracle! But then it choked on its common sense, and slapped another US$50 million on the table for abstinence only programmes that we know don’t work.

So we’ll have more pregnant teenagers, more ill-equppied child-mothers, more kids being poorly raised by resentful single parents whose own opportunities in life were cut short for lack of a pill or a condom. None of which leads to great health outcomes for either mother or child. Is it any wonder that the world’s wealthiest country trails the likes of Cypress, Morrocco and the Dominican Republic in health care?